About the substance in turkey that supposedly makes you sleepy, it's called L-Tryptophan, but it's present in a lot of things. There's more of it in chicken than turkey, and doctors consider the sleepiness due to L-Tryptophan to be a myth. See here:

I never brine my turkey as my family and friends HATE the taste. I always roast in a roaster oven with about the same method you use. I find roasting seals in more flavor than brining could ever add! Thanks for letting me vent! lol

While I might be true that I am an engineer, and a trained chef (CCA), I am also a big fan of pre-brined kosher birds (Empire is my weapon of choice). And in a review of roasting chickens (ok, different bird), it came out on top in 'Cooks Illustrated' testing (i think that was the mag), above free range, organic, etc. Call me lazy !

I've used Alton Brown's method for the past several years now and it always works beautifully. As to the container - a giant, non-reactive container that I've found works well - no matter how large the bird - is a good quality garbage bag. It's clean and all the air can be pressed out so that the bird doesn't have to be flipped. Rather than try to refrigerate it, I put the bag in a cooler with plenty of ice and keep it in the garage or back porch.

Wow, who knew there could be so much to do. I have never brined, split the skin or anything beyond cleaning, coating with butter and seasonings, thrown in a roasting pan and covered with foil completley for basting and always has turned out great. Will have to try some of these suggestions! My step mother tried the slow cook foil bag last year and that was great two, she did that up side down.

When you're ready to brine your turkey, put a couple of those really big trash bags into a styrofoam cooler that you know is big enough to hold the turkey. Put the turkey in the bag(s), pour the brine solution over the turkey, close the bags up, place ice on top and put the cooler lid on. The whole kaboodle can brine away in the garage or on the back porch. And no messy cleanup!

Food-safe plastics are those which do not leach into the food. All the colored garbage bags are not food-safe, and the only white ones the manufacturers have described as food safe (and this was some years back) were the smallest white Glad brand trash bags (just a few quarts). Ziplock is making very large clear storage bags now- please don't use regular trash bags for brining or other food storage uses.